The basic concept of one form of a separable integral donor connector has been previously described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,127,892 to Kuehn, issued Jan. 3, 1979 and assigned to the same assignee as the subject application. Separable integral donor (SID) connectors are used during blood collection to separate the donor tube from the blood collection bag and collect samples of the donor's blood without the necessity of removing the phlebotomy needle from the arm of the donor. After filling the blood collection bag, the separable integral donor connector is separated, exposing a hollow needle which is then inserted through the closure of a sample tube, permitting the collection of one or more samples of blood through the same donor tubing.
The present invention provides an improved version of a separable integral donor connector which has integral with it means for manually clamping the tubing so that the flow of the blood through the separable integral donor connector and into the sample tubes can be regulated and/or cut off when it is undesirable.